thank you i need some plants that would oxygenate the pond and have good protection for:
GSH
FHM
Crawfish
Threadfin Shad
I also want plants that are good for these fish when it comes to protecting eggs.
Fishkeeper1, the challenges you're facing are these:
Where are you going to source these plants from? Most species are not easy to impossible to source from retailers, so you'll have to find a wild source.
Not all species are adapted to all water chemistries and other abiotic factors.
Plants are not the end all be all to protecting your forage fish. In my opinion and experience, extensive shallow areas are more important. Most pond owners build the vast majority of their ponds with extremely steep shorelines, slopes in the area of 3:1 or even steeper than that. This really limits shallow water refuges for forage fish and in my opinion is often why most ponds cannot sustain self reproducing populations of forage fish. Many pond owners want to limit plant growth by using steeply sloped shorelines which is fine if that is your goal.
It isn't going to matter what you do, FHM will be extirpated from your pond within a year or so even if ideal habitat is involved. You can certainly add structure for them and spawning locations to assist in keeping them present for as long as possible, but in the end they will all be eaten...
GSH spawn on vegetation, anything from pondweed species to flooded grassy areas in the spring. They will also spawn on filamentous algae. Having shallow "nursery" areas for the young of GSH is key to their long term success in a pond with LMB or other high end predators.
TFS have somewhat similar methods in spawning with GSH. Their need for shallow nursery areas is not substantial, they simply out reproduce their hungry predators, literally producing MILLIONS of young.
so what plants would be good for creating structure and hiding spots and topwater mats for my fishies
Some good plants for ponds are those that are not overly invasive and provide scattered pockets allow the movement of fish through them for foraging yet also provide protective cover to forage fish. Species such as:
American PondweedEelgrassIllinois PondweedVariable-Leaf PondweedSago PondweedSome of these species such as the American pondweed and the Illinois pondweed have floating leaves and will provide that "floating mat" that many bass fisherman like to fish over. Underneath these mats is a semi open area where predatory fish can forage and forage fish can take refuge...
